16-year-old South Korean golfer wins top U.S. amateur competition

SEOUL, Aug. 8 (Yonhap) — A 16-year-old South Korean made history by winning the top amateur golf tournament in the United States.

Seong Eun-jeong, a golfer from Younpa Girls’ High School in Seoul, won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield, Pennsylvania, on Sunday (local time). In the 36-hole championship match play final, she collected a 1-up victory over Virginia Elena Carta of Italy. It was the first all-international final since 1910.

With the win, Seong became the first player in the history to win both the U.S. Women’s Amateur and the U.S. Girls’ Junior in the same year. She claimed her second straight U.S. Girls’ Junior title last month in New Jersey.

Seong also became the third golfer to win multiple championships of the United States Golf Association (USGA) in the same year. Previously, the Korean-American golfer Pearl Sinn won the Women’s Amateur and Women’s Amateur Public Links in 1988, and South Korea’s Jennifer Song (Song Min-young) triumphed at the same events in 2009.

Seong played a close game with Carta, the 19-year-old who won the NCAA title in May. However, the South Korean drained a 40-foot birdie putt on the par-4 36th hole to seal her victory. Seong now has 25 wins and four losses at USGA match-play tournaments.

Seong has earned her spot in the U.S. Women’s Open next year, as well as other major tournaments like the ANA Inspiration, Women’s British Open and Evian Championship, with her victory. Under the LPGA rule, however, she can’t turn pro until November 2017, meaning that she will compete in the major tournaments as an amateur.

In this file photo provided by the KLPGA, South Korean amateur golfer Seong Eun-jeong speaks during a press conference in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, on June 25, 2016.